Fresno Famous

flashback!

Ground Zero was a home away from home for me. I practically lived there for a time!!! You could find me there everyday! At least my dad always knew where I was... Anyone know what ever happened to Ralph?
Carma

the punk shop next to the OLY

it was called GROUND ZERO...they painted "I couldn't make it as a capitalist" on the window when they closed.
I still do and will always miss the OLY.
interesting side note: Betty Boop...now known as Valentinos, was across the street in the Wonderland Comics space.

70's, 60's, 50's, 40's.....30's?!?!

Well, if you going to do a book on the History of music in Fresno. How far do you go back. My Great Uncle had one of the most popular "dance orchestras"(in the vein of perez prado and xavier cougat) in the 40's and the 50's around here. He used to pack Rainbow Ballroom, Tower Theater and other venues in downtown Fresno, I've seen pictures and it looks really nice and elegant just like anything out the movies, but here in Fresno! You can take a look at pictures and a brief bio of him in the lobby of the Veterans Memorial Building downtown(where you exit after watching a play). I am very proud to have someone like this in my musical lineage and hopefully someday I can pickup the torch where he left off. Anyway, before i get all huffy with pride. My point is, there must be good music dating back for quite some time here, I think we have some real history. And if we are going to write a book about music in Fresno, we have to go back much earlier than the 70's. We play how we play because of our teachers and those before us, its important to chronicle that.

Also, quick mention..this used to be a big stop between Hollywood and San Francisco. We've had some MAJOR stars in Classical music roll through back in the day. It would be interesting to see some picture of that and who came here.

G#minor lydian - Eb Major = Oye Como Va

Patrick Contreras

Nguyen Le

Yeah, it was an incredible show. Unlike anything else I've ever heard. The credit for putting the show together really needs to go to Andre Bush and Mike Dana of Fresno City College, they're the ones who made it happen! It's really great that Fresno listeners can get to check out a group like that. I think it was their very first US tour. JazzFresno will have some other really cool events coming up this Spring (thanks to the Fresno Arts Council!!!) but it's going to be hard to top that one.

sinusitis

been couped up in the house since Sunday night with honkin' schnozzola consnurffles... Cabin fever gets to the best of us... (the Hit Men was a nice touch? No?)

-And you missed an AMAZING concert tonight over at City...
oh-my-lawered...

Nguyen Le

One of those shows where you just are transfixed by the whole thing, time goes away, and you think... somebody did something right getting these guys here... (Joe Moore,,, you and the rest of the bunch who pulled this off... take a bow... unbelievable show... totally unbelievalbe...)

any one of these guys could have blown the doors out by their lonesome...

LocalFresnoRocknRoll Book IdeaStillSticksWithMe

Yeah, to have all that info in one hand.
And I understand that there's lots of other history and lots of other
genres,
but for me, the whole network of it in the 'lack of better term'
"Rock" category (including punk/rockabilly/soul/pop/ etc.---like in a small record store where it says "pop/rock")
The Clubs
The Local Labels
The Local Record Releases
Interviews with club owners, record store owners, local entertainment papers(there's been many, some lasted a while, some not)
Local Promoters.
The different scenes in different decades.
Big long "Band Lists" by decade.
I mean would it start with David Seville or Rose Maddox?
I would totally enjoy a book like this.
I could see it as a website with multiple links and a hardcopy with photos etc.
It could be sold in the 'local interest' sections of bookstores---sort of like the "As Pop Saw It" photo books.
I think every local musician would buy it--or get it in their stockings at Christmas.

Ono: Yeah, I've had the joy of speaking with Cletus a couple of times--at a couple of Guitar Society meetings and here and there.
There was a GREAT article done by.. I think it was Osegueda? ...a couple of years back on him.

Void: Man, you are getting giddy with lacquer fumes, I think you even answered one of your own posts up there a scroll-space or two.
But it sounded very jovial!

Cletus Clark's legacy

Most guitar players in the Fresno area play a little like Cletus Clark whether they know it or not. The recently passed local Jazz Guitarist George Roessler took lessons from him in the 50's along with many others. I took lessons from a former student of Cletus' in 1969 at Starr House of Music near Ventura and Sixth Street. I have taught many to play as well over the last 30 years. The craft and its traditions are passed on.

Cletus is also past president of the Central Valley Guitar Society. (They have monthly meeting at a church in Clovis)
Now in his eighties he is has slowed a bit but still plays and teaches.

Another octagenerian, Kenny Hall, still plays every Wednesday evening at the Santa Fe Basque. He starts around 5 or so and only plays to maybe 8 PM. A real legend and local treasure.

heee- ha

betcha Blake already knows Cletus.. bein' thems both geetar players.

ya'll gotta meet Cletus tho'.
one helluva picker (sorry for the cussin' Cletus) & heavenly good old guy.
xlnt resource of the way-back and the Merle T. stylin

this could be a lot of fun, though...

I see big things happening... hear me out.

'Cletus and Blake Attorneys at Law'

'Blake and Cletus: Specializing in Gastro-Interological Medecine'

(Nitro powered Corvair Funny Cars with candy colored fenders, scrolled down the side with musical notes (circa 1972) 'Cletus and Blake Tuned Exhaust Systems.' (They used to have a SOHC Cammer Ford stuffed in an Anglia...)

or...

'Cletus and Blake: Your One Stop Shopping for all your Hitman needs, be they Equuine, Bovine, and Humine, 'smaller critters taken care of for free...'

(two flat tires, guaranteed,,, he might even stick my spokes next time out...)
-heeee

...now there's a name you just don't see much of anymore

...Somebody has to name their kid Cletus...
heck, how's about Clark?
-And what about Agnes, Myrtle, Agatha, or Mergatroid???

They brought back Emma and Eva...

(my fav. has to be from 'Pretty in Pink.'
Blake??? what kind of name is THAT? that's not a name, that's a major appliance,,, Blake...'
(or was it Blaine?)
(...oh am I gonna get a flat tire for that one...)

Back home in the hills there really are people named 'Skeeter.'
(well, when you're baptizin' em in the creek their momma's say their full christian name 'Moskito Bernard Howard Epp,'
---but we just call him 'Skeeter.' (His older brothers name is Buzzy.' (Smiles all around,,,, well okay then.)

('t least the sister's name is pretty...

'Tinkerbell.')

local oldie

my mother always covered her ears and my dad just grinned every time Dave Stogner came on the black&white.
never realized then how well-connected he was.
http://www.corralitoshistory.com/daveStogner_00.html

another local treasure is Cletus Clark, the first guy the Opry ever allowed on stage with an electric lap-steel guitar. Still here teaching guitar.

You definately have something there.

Country/Western Swing/Honky Tonk music is another genre that has a lot of roots and history in the Central Valley. Since Country went Hollywood (or Nashville or something), it's often forgotten that those Dust Bowlers brought a lot of their Western Music roots to California back in the day and we can lay claim to some pretty amazing roots-performers here in the Big Valley. Bakersfield of course is known for being a tap root of some of this stuff, but Fresno was the....now I know I'll get this wrong, go as Newton at Backline repair...
But Bob Wills, the big Western Swing guy not only played in this area all the time, but I believe they were based in Fresno for a spell.

Another non-rock genre thing----The Fresno Music(al?) Club just had their Hundredth anniversary. I don't know much about them, but they've gotta be a source of some interesting stories.

Yeah, all we need here is an editor who is willing to work
for free for countless hours....any takers?
(well, money MIGHT be made if it was turned into some sort of publication)

That whole 'music history' thing

I'm thinking about this whole database and documentation of the music of the area, and, though new to Fresno would add the following:

I think the rock/punk history being written is good.
I think the rest of the music that has come out of here, -or come through here should be noted as well.

I'm listening to KFSR this morning, (Joe is throwing down some very very good tracks by the way,) ---and he's doing something that I've also heard on the classical station by (Christina Herrick?)

There is an understanding and an explaination to why the songs matter, (Joe talking about who plays what tracks, side anecdotes, ---but also telling us if various musicians are from the area or not, -as well as what they've contributed to greater bands.)
It's really a lost art, it brings the listener in,
-and, especially with a form like Jazz (which is called both 'crazy people's music,' or 'thinking people's music,')
-the listener comes away from the experience feeling really like they learned something and are closer to the musicians, -AND heard something excellent.

Thinking about it, there are other shows on kfsr, as well as tons back east where the DJ's really have a nice way of weaving the performances into the landscape, (I actually found myself listening to Wanda Fisher on WAMC for her show 'Hudson River Sampler,' --which is all folk oriented... (some of it was pretty bad,) -but a lot of times It was pretty excellent, (just get ready for a lot of Pete Seeger.)

The guy who handles music at my church is also a local teacher in piano, and one afternoon explained some of the music (just jazz and classical wise,) that has been a part of Fresno for the past 60 years.
This place has been jammed with excellent musicians over the years.

-Stuff that was really cool to know, -but not widely known, to say the least.

Checking on the thread for 'Wild Blue Yonder,' on another thread I read a rather entertaining paragraph that calls Fresno 'the Big Ugly,' -among other things.
Okay, no problem,
I understand that it's a fondness for the town and basically describing Cyndi Crawford by the size of her mole, and is meant to depict an era...
-but still,

-I think there is a possible hobbling (or narrowing,) due to the comments that may be better balanced with all of the other music forms being documented.
Some genre's as well (Punk?!) though excellent and significant, -don't lend themselves to positive views, -just by virture of the artform,
(Though it would be interesting to see if anyone released an album called '...Performing with Bollocks, Ladies and Gentlemen: it's the Sex Pistols at the Big Fresno Fair...' (talk about slam dancin' on a slippery floor... yah baby..)

(I'm not speaking of editing out what Fresno was in a bad way, just also showing what Fresno was in a 'good way' from other angles.)

Example:
-how many people listen to Count Bassie and know that he cut a CD here in (I think it's '58?)
-I had no clue until my little brother sent me the thing for my birthday last year...

From what I understand, Fresno used to be a serious stop over and a lot of heavyweights in jazz and classical would play here, (because it was between SF and LA,)
-so there was lots of cool trickledown that may have been lost.)

I don't know enough about it to write with much authority, -but it would be a shame to not see it documented somehow, (particularlly since musicians and artists are not raised in a vacuum of their own particular musical genre.)
I have a funny feeling this place has been crawling with musicians of many different influences for a long time.

total sidenote, but totally worth saying

I've had several positions over the years where severe and total documentation was essential, (both in the financial, and medical realms, -not to mention full clinical documentation of clients that could affect their lives in very very serious ways, (hospitalization or incarceration for years, -for example.)
-Among my hats? I'm an Archivist.

Though I've rubbed elbows with some pretty serious (fellow) Archivists and those who are required, (by law, usually,) to document things for a living?

Ain' never seen nothin like AntiMusic.

(Dude, if we had you in the Tax Reclaimation project at DeutscheBank from 1999-to 2002, --we could have recouped millions more, and it would have been great to have you aboard... (of course, you'd probably be bored out of your mind, and who needs to help a megabank make recover residuals from closed governments and financial structures... ---but the pay weren't bad.)

Not sayin, I'm just saying...

ABC and Fred's

the ABC database says that the license was issued on Jun 9, 1992 to Fred and Joann Martinez.

Dale Stewart's Stagedive records

The Stagedive records store front was from 1985 - 1992, Dale Stewart ran Stagedive records located first on Blackstone then later on Belmont. He would carry all types of great music spanning from the 50s in to the 1980s, at very reasonable prices for new and used vinyl records.

I've got some good memories of buying records at Stagedive, I still have those records even with the price tag still on them, Dale sold some records at an affordable price, today I've looked back at some of the Joy Division records I bought there and have found that the price it worth more than what I had paid for them at his shop, but then you really did not know that Joy Division records would be worth as much as they are today.

(thanks to Dale)
Fresno Punk History Includes a list of Bands, Venues, Gig-lists, Flyer Art, Album Covers, and Fanzines.

HC'84 Comp and The Barstow ave. Warehouse the Story of a happening rehearsal space in the Fresno area from 1982-1986 and a record Compilation that pays homage to those days.

Here is Dale's latest band made from Backstory and Capitol Punishment Dale and the Dustups

---
another person of note is June Beard of Nazi Bitch and the Jews You see her around the Tower Area, Smoking a Cigar and drinking some strong liquor.

Oly to Fred's

I'm thinking that Fred Martinez bought the Oly in 1990. I moved here in fall 1989 and it was definitely still the Oly then -- my first Tower District experience! Yeow! and it seems like the changeover was a year or less later.

--Deb

xlnt idea, mr Tman.

xlnt idea, mr Tman.
trying to shave the fuzz from the peach.
these lost-year estimates need adjustment from my wayback to the gigging musicians' receipt log.

Oly to Fred change ~ 1986?
WBY start ~ 1973

ow! this hurts